Various designs of transport device for cylindrical bales have been provided previously. In one arrangement of transport device, there are provided on a trailer two parallel longitudinal receptacles. The bales are loaded from a front end of the receptacles and move rearwardly by pushing the bales longitudinally along the receptacles in end-to-end position. The bales are then discharged by pushing the bales beyond the end of the receptacles so they discharge from the end of the trailer.
An alternative design of bale transport device includes two parallel receptacles but in this case the receptacles are pivoted about a horizontal axis at the base of the receptacle so that in the first position the bales lie in two rows with the receptacles inclined slightly inwardly so the bales contact along a centre line of trailer. The discharge in this case is effected by pivoting the receptacles simultaneously outwardly about their respective horizontal axis so that each receptacle discharges to a respective side of the trailer. This type of transport unit has the advantage over the first type described above in that it is significantly less expensive and of a relatively simple construction and in some cases the device can be actuated by cable without the necessity for any hydraulic systems for providing power. This again therefore significantly decreases the cost of the product. However a device of this type cannot accommodate a third row of bales mounted upon the V-shaped area between the first two rows of bales since the third or upper row of bales would simply be dropped vertically downwardly onto the trailer as the bales in the first two rows are discharged outwardly. This system therefore limits the number of bales which can be transported and thus requires of course more transportation trips to transport a predetermined number of bales.
A third type of bale transporting device which is currently available simply includes an elongate beam of the trailer on which is mounted a plurality of separate receptacles each for receiving an individual bale. In this case the unloading of the bale is carried out in a simple manual manner by unlatching the receptacle and manually pivoting the receptacle about a horizontal axis to discharge the single bale. This device has the advantage that it is very simple and inexpensive but it requires significant manual effort and in addition the number of bales which can be transported is limited effectively to a single row.